At GSK, we have a proud history of working with communities in the world's poorest countries and helping them address their healthcare challenges. As I mentioned yesterday, we are committed to reinvesting 20% of profits made in the LDCs back into the LDCs.
Yesterday I gave a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, where I discussed four new community malaria projects in Africa worth approximately $2 million. All these projects involve working with NGOs, in partnership, to address healthcare needs at the community level.
NGOs like AMREF, Family Health International, Planned Parenthood Federation, and Save the Children who will work with communities in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. At the heart of all these programs is the training of healthcare workers and educational programs to teach parents and children how to minimize the risk from Malaria.
But we're not only focused on malaria. We are looking to support projects with partners like WHO and the Ministry of Health in Zambia, where we are working to reduce maternal, neonatal and under-five mortality.
To truly understand patients and disease we need to be engaged at the patient level--both physically and emotionally. That is why we are involved in these projects. By working with NGOs like AMREF we learn valuable lessons about disease and patients and diseases, and how we can play an ever more valuable role in addressing healthcare needs on the ground.
We also work with NGOs in LDCs--and around the world--by sending employees to share their expertise through our PULSE program. Employees in the program are given 3-6 months away from their jobs to help organizations on the ground to make a positive impact in the community.
These individuals will come back with new ideas, energized and motivated, which will help us be better and more effective in the future. This is not just philanthropy. Healthcare is our business and our mission.
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